Interior Design vs. Interior Decorating: What’s the Difference?

Interior designers and interior decorators are both professionals who can make positive changes to your home, making it a better, more beautiful and comfortable place to live. Both can help you create the home of your dreams! Good interior designers and decorators are aware that there is no “one size fits all.” They are mindful of trends, but their main goal is to create a space that reflects your one-of-a-kind needs.

Sometimes, there’s overlap between the two professions. Some interior designers will also provide decorating services to meet your needs.

Interior Designers: Focusing on Function & Fixtures

Interior designers work closely with contractors and architects to create and execute plans for a functional, beautiful space. They work on all the permanent features of your home renovation. A good interior design will help you:

• Work closely with architects to make layout decisions
• Select cabinets, countertops, and other finishes
• Choose hardware, tile, lighting, appliances, and fixtures
• Suggest functionalities for your family while retaining your personal style

Home renovations are difficult and expensive to reverse if you make the wrong interior design choices. Therefore, it’s a smart idea to have a professional interior designer working with you. They can eliminate a lot of headaches and save you money in the long run.

An interior designer will work with you to understand what you want and need from your remodel. They will work with your architect to make sure the architectural design incorporates it. Your designer will narrow down your choices allowing you to pick from a reasonable number of items. Otherwise, you would be swimming in industry catalogs!

Interior Decorators: Focusing on the Final Touches

An interior decorator will help make your home a more beautiful place to live by making aesthetic changes, not structural ones. They are great at making furniture and decor decisions to give your home a unique style. Unlike interior designers, their work begins after the structural work ends.

An interior decorator can help you:

• Choose color schemes and style for your home
• Suggest wallpaper, paint colors, and other finishes
• Shop for furniture and decor that looks great and meets your family’s needs
• Arrange the furniture, art, and accessories
• Align the overall aesthetics of a space

Your interior decorator’s goal is to give you an aesthetically beautiful home that reflects your personal taste and needs. It’s the finishing touches – rugs, artwork, pillows, furniture, window treatments – that make a house feel like home.

Do You Need a Designer, a Decorator, or Both?

It’s rare that one firm provides both services, so the answer may be – Both! First, you’ll need an Interior Designer to help you wade through the many choices of tile, cabinetry, lighting, windows, handles, knobs, faucets…well, you get the idea. In addition to our Interior Design services, our staff also provides Interior Decorating services. Get started by checking out our interior design services. 

5 Tips for Making Your Kitchen More Functional for Everyday Life

If you’re dreaming of a kitchen remodel, you probably have some ideas in mind for how you want your kitchen to look.  You are obsessing over a certain backsplash tile, or perhaps you know for sure that you want white cabinets and a farmhouse sink.

But there’s one thing you should never underestimate: the power of a great kitchen layout. The most gorgeous kitchen in the world will frustrate you every single day if the layout isn’t functional for your lifestyle. So, here are 5 tips for making your kitchen more functional when cooking meals and living your life at home!

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Rearrange

Make sure you have a simple, clear path throughout your kitchen. The stove, the refrigerator, and the sink should be easily accessible: there should not be any obstructions getting in the way. Do you usually have 2 or more people cooking in the kitchen? Make sure there’s room to maneuver. And if there are any obstacles – like an ill-placed window or a dishwasher in a bad spot – one of the best things you can do is make room in the budget to rearrange for a functional layout. It is possible to move just about anything: windows, appliances, doors, sometimes even walls.

2. Task Lighting is Key

Your kitchen won’t be functional if you can’t see what you’re cooking! If you just have overhead lights, you may be blocking the counter or stove top with your own shadow while cooking. Consider all the places where you need task lighting. Under cabinet lights are hidden and functional. Pendants over the island or sink are popular choices, and you can choose rustic farmhouse style pendants, or sleek modern ones to make your preferred design style. Wall sconces are very decorative if you don’t have upper cabinets on a wall. Your beautiful new light fixtures might just end up being your favorite part of your kitchen remodel!

3. What’s Your Preferred Storage?

Lately, there has been a trend towards incorporating more drawers, not doors, into lower cabinetry. You know how it’s easy to lose things in the dark depths of lower cabinets? Drawers are so much simpler to access and organize, since you can pull them out and see every corner with ease. Many people have found that they love having everything in drawers: flatware, dishware, utensils, spices, even pots and pans!

4. Think About Smart Seating

Whether it is a kitchen table or bar stools at an island, seating is a great way to add more life to the heart of your home. Do you have kids who like to sit in the kitchen while you cook? Do you like to have friends and family over for dinner? If so, it is important that you have seating in a place where people won’t get in the way of your path between the sink and the refrigerator, or even worse, where you risk burning someone.

5. Incorporate Functional Decor

In the kitchen, filling open shelves, walls, and countertops with purely decorative objects is wasted space Instead, display beautiful cutting boards, mixing bowls, salt and pepper shakers, pretty linens, or any other items that you use on a regular basis. It will keep your drawers and cabinets free for other things, makes frequently used items easy to access, and it looks beautiful!

Thinking of these functional elements now, will help your architectural design evolve from plans on paper to the gorgeous kitchen of your dreams.

Common DIY Remodeling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Are you considering attempting a “do it yourself” project for your home? Professionals are in high demand for these types of projects because often time’s homeowners get in over their head, or forget Continue reading